Improvement in coking-furnaces



SSheetS--Sheet l. H. ENGELMANN.

Staking-Furnaces.

No. 141,778. PatentedAugust12,1873.

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H. ENGELMANN.

Staking-Furnaces.

Patented August 12, 1873.

3Sheets--Sheet 3. H. ENGELMANN.

No. 141,778. coking'FurnaeS-Patented Augusm, 1373.

we@ www @fm/#QW UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

HENRY ENGELMANN, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH TERRITORY.

IMPROVEMENT IN COKlNG-FURNACES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 141,778, dated August12, 1873 application filed December 6, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY ENGELMANN, of Salt Lake City, in the Territoryof Utah, have invented certain Improvements in Ooking-Furnaces, of whichthe following is a specification:

This invention may be used for colring purposes generally, butis moreespecially designed for coking imperfectly-caking or non-caking coals,lignite, anthracite Waste, and analogous material refractory to ordinarytreatment in the common coking-ovens. It consists in a furnaceconstructed with vertical heatingiiues, provided in the walls, betweenhigh, narrow, and comparatively long coking-ovens, with horizontal orslightly-inclined floors, in such manner that the ovens can be rapidly,strongly, and uniformly heated throughout by heat radiated laterallyfrom the ues, and which heat is created by the combustion of inflammablegases, which are ignited with the introduction of a suitable quantity ofair, either in these vertical fines or immediately before entering theseflues, and pass through them, thus ignited, either upward or downward,radiating their heat into the ovens. The invention also consists in thecombination of the aforesaid heating-dues with conduits of combustiblegas which pass longitudinally along their lower or respectively upperends and communicate with these iiues. The hot products of combustion,on leaving the iiues, are taken up by other conduits, also passinglongitudinally alongtheir opposite ends, which conduct them to chimneysdistributed at suitable points along these conduits, or to a largestack, in which the conduits from a number of ovens unite. The conduitswhich carry the inflammable gases to the heating-dues in the sides ofthe ovens connect with separate furnaces for the production of theseheatinggases by the imperfect combustion of fuel, so that the heating ofthe flues and ovens is independent of the evolution of gases by theprocess of coking inside of the ovens, and can be regulated at will bythe operator. Hereby, the admixtureofthe gases evolvedinthecoking-ovensby the process of colring to these independently-created gases is by nomeans excluded. The invention also comprises certain novel means forfacilitating the colrin gof the carbonaceous material placed inside theovens, and for conducting the requisite quantity of gas and air to thevertical heating-fines in the walls of the ovens, and for regulating thecombustion and heat in these heating-fines.

Figure lis a vertical longitudinal section of a furnace constructedaccording to my invention. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the same.Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse section of the same taken in the line yof Fig. 2.

The furnace may be constructed of the usual materials-fire-brick forthose parts most exposed to the heat, and common brick for the outer orexternal portions. It comprises any desired number of narrow ovens, A,of great height and length, as compared with their width, arranged sideby side, with intervening walls B, through which extend the verticalfines (l. As shown more clearly in Fig. 2, these iiues are oblong intheir cross or horizontal section, with their longest sides parallelwith the adjacent sides of the ovens, the iiues being thus arranged tosecure the most facile and effective radiation of heat therefrom, to,and into the ovens. Each oven should have about the proportions of fromtwenty to thirty feet in length, from fifteen to twenty inches in width,and from eight to twelve feet in height. The narrow form thus given tothe ovens is essential to the rapid action upon the material to be cokedof the heat derived from the flues (l, as hereinafter more fully setforth. The height given to the ovens is like wise essential for making acompact and firm coke, which otherwise would be soft and lack firmnessin consequence of the high heat to which the coal is exposed in theovens at once after being charged. It is also essential for the morecomplete decomposition of the carbureted volatile products of the cokingprocess, which are thus prevented from escaping too readily, and are ontheir way brought more in contact with the heated walls of the ovens,whereby they are decomposed, and their carbon is partly deposited uponthe coking mass, whereby a higher percentage ot' coke and a denser cokeare secured. It is, furthermore, essential in securing a betterutilization of the heat created by the combustion in the verticalheating-dues C in the walls of the ovens. The length of the ovens isless essential 5 but it is generally profitable and desirable to makethem as long as can be done conveniently.

' Each oven is furnished at either end with an opening, closed when thefurnace is in operation by fire-brick bound with iron, as shown at A. Atits top each oven is furnished with outlet-pipes D, for carrying off thegases evolved by the cokin g process, each of which is provided with avalve, a, whereby the said pipes may be either wholly or partiallyclosed, as may be desired, and the outflow of the gases may thus bechecked or throttled. This arrangement has a similar effect as theheight of the ovens. It subjects the coking mass in the oven topressure, and secures a more complete decarburation of the coking-gases.At its top each oven is further provided with a suitable number ofopenings for introducing the charge, and which are, during the processof coking, securely closed by means of blocks of fire-brick, K, whichare luted. The gases for heating the flues C are generated in anindependent and separate furnace of any known or suitable constructionfor producing inflam- 1n able gases from the partial or imperfectcombustion of fuel. They are carried to the heating-flucs C in the wallsof the ovens A by gasconduits,wl1ich, branching from a main conduit,pass longitudinally alongthe ends of the flues C and connect with them.These gasconduits, and the air-conduits by which the air for thecombustion of the gases is admitted at the proper points, may bearranged in various ways. The gases may be admitted at the upper ends ofthe heating-fines C, when air may be admitted directly to them at thesepoints by short pipes, and the combustion take place downward in thelues, and the products of combustionV or hot gases be taken up by canalsrunning lengthwise along the lower end of the lines U, and thus carriedto chimneys; or the gases and air may be admitted at the lower end ofthe ilues O, and the combustion proceed upward, when the spent gases maybe gathered from the various lues C in conduits running longitudinallyover the partition-walls of the ovens A, which carry them to chimneysdistributed suitably over the coking-furnace, or to a chimney common toall the flues and ovens of the furnace. The heat retained by thesegaseous products of combustion may be utilized in various ways beforethey are allowed to escape through this chimney.

The device for distributing gas and air, and carrying ofi' the productsof their combustion, illustrated in the annexed figures, and which Ialso claim as novel, is the following: Provided under each oven is alongitudinal passage, E, with openings c, establishing communicationwith the lower ends of the vertical flues U. These passages connect atone end of the furnace with another or transverse passage, F, common toall the passages E just named, and supplied with combustible gas from anindependent gasproducin g furnace or other suitable source of supply ofgaseous fuel. Underneath each of the passages E is a longitudinalair-conduit, G, communicating by openings f with the ilues C above, andall in communication with the atmosphere through the well H at one endof the furnace. The size of the openings f, for the admission of airinto the lues G, can be regulated by more or less opening valves orslides attached to these openings. It will be noticed that theproperdistribution of gas to each of the ilues C of each longitudinal seriesis secured, in part, by making the gas-passage E connecting therewithlargest at its outermost end, and continuously diminishing in transversearea as the number of ilues to be supplied from it decreases, as will beunderstood by reference to Fig. 1. rlhis arrangement has the furtheradvantage over a conduit of equal or uniform, and therefore at itsextreme end unnecessarily wide, cross-section, that it does not containand expose to the high temperature eX- isting in this canal anunnecessarily large volume of the heatinggases, which would thereby bedecomposed and deposit part of their carbon, losing thereby part oftheir heating power and obstructing the conduit. Each line C opens atits upper end into a longitudinal outlet-tine, I, the opening being moreor less contracted or partially closed by fire-brick placed at g, bywhich means a proper tension of the burning gases is main tained in theheating-fines C, and a uniform distribution of the gases and heat inthese flues is eected. At its center, measuring from either end, eachoutlet-flue I is divided by a transverse partition, m", which causes oneportion of the escaping gaseous products of combustion to pass one wayto an outlet, J, at one end of the furnace, while the remainder of thesaid products passes to a similar outlet, also marked J, at the oppositeextremity of the apparatus. When, for any reason, (as, in Asome cases,may occur,) it be desired, the gases may be ignited in the conduit-nues,arranged in such relation with the heatingflues G that a portion of thename, together with the hot products of combustion, may pass into theilues to heat the ovens in a manner substantially identical with thatinsured when the combustion occurs Wholly in the fines; but the ovenscan then not be made quite so long; otherwise the heat would not bequite so uniform in their different parts.

In using the furnace, the ovens are rst brought to the proper heat byadmitting the gases from the conduits F and the air from the passages Gtogether to the ilues C, and firing them. A rapid combustion ismaintained to secure the high temperature required. The openings at theends of the ovens are securely closed, and when the ovens have attainedthe proper temperature the charge is introduced into the ovens throughthe openings in the top thereof, which are then tightly closed by theiire'brick blocks K. The proper heat is then maintained as long as maybe necessary, and regulated according to the requirements of theprocess, until the charge is thoroughly coked. The pressure upon thecoking mass, due to the evolution of gases from the coking mass, may beregulated at will by adjusting the valves a in the pipes D. When theprocess is completed,the coke is removed from the ovens through theopenings A', in the same manner as from other long horizontalcoking-ovens.

rEhe high initial and sustained heat, d ue to the arrangement of theheating-hues C and the use of an independent source of heatinggases, andthe pressure consequent upon the height of the charge in the ovens andto the tension of the escaping gases, maintained by means of the valvesa in the pipes D, not only effects a perfect coking of materials, Whichcake imperfectly in ordinary furnaces, but also makes it possible tocoke non-caking materials, commonly so called, and of which lignite oranthracite may be taken as examples, if mingled with variableproportions of caking bituminous coal or coal-tar, asphaltum,or thelike, which proportion of admixture is much smaller than would berequired for effecting the same result in coking-ovens of other knownconstruction. Furthermore, the process is so rapidly completed as topermit, with economy, a certain cooling of the coke in the ovensprevious to withdrawal. Thus, a too profuse application of cold waterfor cooling the hot coke may be avoided, which otherwise splits anddisintegrates coke naturally lacking in firmness, and diminishes itsvalue as furnace fuel. i

Apart from the combinations herein shown and described, I do not claimany part of the subject-matter embraced in the patent of W. G.Valentine, granted January 13, 1863, but

the material subjected to coking, whereby the retention of the gaseslong enough to secure the most efticient deposition of carbon therefromis provided for, substantially as herein described.

4. The arrangement, with reference to the heating-dues C in theintervening Walls of the coking-ovens A, of the openings C of thegaspassages E, and the openings f of the air- Vconduits G, substantiallyas and for the purpose specified. l

5. The arrangement, with reference to the vertical heating-nues Cprovided in the walls B of the coking-ovens A, of the outlet-nues I andthe outlets J, the outlet-fines being divided centrally at m, and theoutlets provide-d at opposite ends of the furnace, substantially as andfor the purpose herein set forth.

HENRY ENGELMANN.

Witnesses S. J. JoNAssoN, JAMES LOWE.

